Several videos emerged on social media on Tuesday evening in which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro were confronted with pointed questions by audience members attending their events.
In one clip, an unnamed member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Marxist party in the United States, sharply criticized Almagro for his support for the 2019 coup d’etat against then-Bolivian President Evo Morales and the right-wing regime that ruled the country for a year, suppressing with deadly force the indigenous and workers’ movement that arose in Morales’ defense.
“Luis Almagro, you have blood on your hands! Because of your lies, there was a coup in Bolivia - a coup against the democratically-elected government, and that dictatorship that you helped install massacred 36 people,” he yelled at the OAS chief. The activist also faulted Almagro for supporting the coup attempt in Venezuela by Juan Guaido, noting he still supports Guaido's baseless claim to power and that US sanctions have killed more than 40,000 people in Venezuela.
Security was slow to respond, giving him nearly 3 minutes to accuse Almagro of supporting Washington’s bid to control Bolivian natural resources before being handcuffed and escorted out.
At another forum on press freedom, journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin confronted Blinken about the murders of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“These are your two greatest allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel, they have murdered American journalists and there have been absolutely no repercussions and you’re sitting up here talking about freedom of the press and democracy,” Martin told the US foreign minister.
“The United States is denying sovereignty to tens of millions of people around the world with draconian sanctions for electing leaders that you do not like. Why is there no accountability for Israel or Saudi Arabia for murdering journalists?”
Blinken replied that he “deplore[s] the loss of Shireen,” saying “there, too, we are determined to follow the facts and get to the truth.”
“The facts have been found, Secretary Blinken,” Martin interjected, pointing to a Palestinian probe that concluded the Al Jazeera reporter had been deliberately shot by Israeli soldiers outside Hebron last month. “It is conclusive.”
However, Blinken demurred, saying he was waiting for an “independent, credible investigation.”
“We will follow the facts wherever they lead, it’s as straightforward as that,” he added.
Blinken was also challenged by Breakthrough News journalist Eugene Puryear, who asked from the crowd about inconsistencies in US policy in terms of which leaders it invited to the Los Angeles summit.
“I wonder how you justify the invitation of Dr. Ariel Henry from Haiti when he is actually governing with no constitutional mandate, his government has been implicated in many different crimes including, potentially, the murder of the past president,” Jovenel Moise, Puryear said.
“Countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua are being excluded from the Summit of the Americas because you deem them to not be democratic, but how can you use that as your justification when you have the so-called prime minister of Haiti, who is ruling under no sort of democratic mandate here?”
Blinken’s reply was worded very similar to that which he gave to Martin. “We, like many other countries, are determined to get back to the facts of what happened in Haiti, including the assassination of the previous prime minister. We’re determined to find the facts, wherever they lead and to whomever they lead.”
Puryear pressed the question further. “But does democracy only matter if they disagree with the United States government? What is your actual basis for saying a government is undemocratic and can’t be invited, and another one that’s undemocratic can be invited?” However, did not get a response.
Ostensibly a gathering of the entire community of the Western Hemisphere, which the US has for nearly two centuries regarded as its sphere of influence, the 2022 Summit of the Americas is perhaps the most poorly attended of the nine such gatherings held since 1994. After the US refused to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua - three leftist states targeted for regime change by Washington - several others said they would boycott the event in protest, including Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Several others, including Chile and Argentina, condemned the exclusion but still attended the summit.
A competing People’s Summit for Democracy has also been convened by leftist groups in Los Angeles this week, with various groups from civil society across the US and Latin America attending. Several representatives from Cuba who had intended to attend the alternative summit had their visas blocked by Washington.